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This was followed by a repeat of the
Hugh Grant film Love Actually, with 1.6million viewers before the
nightly news and 1.8million afterwards.

BBC1’s prime-time share of audience on
the same night was 20.5 per cent, with Superstars getting almost six
million viewers. BBC2 also beat ITV on audience share.

Poor performance: ITV has been hit by a string of bad ratings figures. And, Downton Abbey recorded its lowest ever viewing figures this Christmas

Disappointing: The drama, starring Dan Stevens as Matthew Crawley (left) and Michelle Dockery as Lady Mary (right), came only sixth in the Christmas ratings

The commercial broadcaster’s top show
was its evening news and weather bulletin at about 2.5million viewers,
followed by I Love You’ve Been Framed with 2.4million.

An episode of Dad’s Army on BBC2 at
6.45pm on Saturday, which got 2.4million viewers, beat a show on the
30th anniversary of CITV, the broadcaster’s children’s service.

A programme about the making of The Sound of Music on BBC2 also beat an ITV show on at the same time.

The figures confirm the BBC’s dominance over the festive period.

On Christmas Eve, apart from
Coronation Street, Emmerdale and its evening news bulletin, BBC1 beat
ITV shows all night – Merlin, EastEnders, Outnumbered, Mrs Brown’s Boys
and a repeat of the Vicar of Dibley easily beating, by millions, the
commercial broadcaster’s offerings which included The Spice Girls Story
and Christmas Carols on ITV.

An episode of Dad's Army (pictured) on BBC2 beat an ITV show about the 30th anniversary of the broadcaster's children's service

Poor showing: A repeat of the 2003 Hugh Grant film Love Actually drew just with 1.6million viewers for ITV over Christmas

On the same night BBC2 got more viewers for some of its shows than ITV, including Open All Hours and Porridge.

ITV was also beaten on Christmas Day
throughout peak viewing hours, with Doctor Who beating Emmerdale,
Strictly Come Dancing easily conquering a Paul O’Grady show about dogs
and EastEnders and The Royle Family victorious over Downton Abbey. Only
Coronation Street beat its head-to-head rival Call The Midwife.

On Boxing Day, BBC1 had huge ratings
for sitcom Miranda, watched by a peak of ten million, trouncing a
Stephen Fry drama on ITV by about seven million viewers.

ITV was also beaten on Christmas Day throughout peak viewing hours, with Doctor Who (above) beating Emmerdale and EastEnders and The Royle Family victorious over Downton Abbey

It also got a massive audience for the second festive episode of Mrs Brown’s Boys, which averaged almost nine million viewers.

ITV can console itself that its soap operas continued to attract high ratings.

The commercial broadcaster has always
faced a dilemma at Christmas over whether to take on the might of the
BBC or to keep back big projects for the new year.